31st January 2025

31st January 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Ezekiel 20:1-44 focus v27-44)


Message (Alan Burke)


We are at war. I can’t imagine Keir Starmer ever saying those words, if Churchill was Prime Minister today he would do something about what is going on in Ukraine but these days we’re too worried about the consequences and never mind what it would do to the economy. Yet we are at war, the believer is at war against the flesh and the Devil, it is a war against the former self (see Gal 5:17, Jam 4:1 & 1 Pet 2:11). 


For those whom the Lord through Ezekiel confronted they weren’t even trying, they were still sinning like their fathers. Instead of devoting themselves to the Lord they continued in their idolatry as v31 confronts them. This wasn’t a long forgotten history, one that they had repented off, lamented their sinfulness this was who they were, nothing had changed, idols, child sacrifices and idolatry continued, this is the people of God who were to be set apart, a holy people (Ex 19:1-6). They had rebelled against the Lord, they continued to rebel against the Lord and because of this who were they to inquire of him, why should the Lord reply, they wanted to be like the nations, like the people of the world, who serve wood and stone. The Lord our God wanted his people to put him in his rightful place but they had not, he had told them to have no other gods before him but they had went after the other gods and he hands them over to their desires. Time and time again the Lord had been gracious to his people but he had enough and they would face his judgement.


Yet the Lord as continues to speak there is reason to hope in the midst of their faithlessness, in the midst of their sin, for he in his forbearance, because he is long suffering would bring about a new exodus for his names sake. He in the midst of this would gather a people to himself, where they would meet with them in the wilderness entering into judgement with his people (34). He would establish a new covenant with his people (35-37). The details are vague but its significance is clear, the Lord would do what he has done in the past, again electing a people, choosing not because they deserved it but because of his gracious choosing. 


The Lord through Ezekiel is not telling his people of a restored Israel, a nation but instead of what he would do in the future. For he has poured out his wrath but on his son, he judged him in the place of his people, he is bringing people into covenant relationship with him because of his gracious choosing, his election, a true Israel his people and they will be brought into relationship with him through what Jesus Christ has done, the new exodus has now come and we await the Lord leading us to the promised land. Until that day we should never forget that we are at war, against the flesh and the Devil, it is a war against the former self (see Gal 5:17, Jam 4:1 & 1 Pet 2:11), we should be those who live to serve the Lord our God, that we would love him, turning from the sin that his word confronts us with living for his glory above all because of what he has done for us.  


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q102. What do we pray for in the second petition?
A. In the second petition, which is, Thy kingdom come,” we pray, that Satan’s kingdom may be destroyed; and that the kingdom of grace may be advanced, ourselves and others brought into it, and kept in it; and that the kingdom of glory may be hastened.
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